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Entry tags:
The Company
Our September 22 session started late, but everybody we were expecting showed up: Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee"), and Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases). Stéphane ("Hamid Fassal") was away on a cruise, so he wasn't able to make it.
Time: September 4, 2009 (night).
Place: General area of Midas 69, Paris.
Last Event: Arranging surreptitious surveillance of Midas 69.
As the old saw goes, "And now, we wait." After setting up surveillance on the phones and security cameras of Midas 69, the Agents decide to spend the next few hours watching to see whether Hristov drops in, as he has on past Fridays. In fine stakeout tradition, they sit in the back of their parked van, headsets on and screens lit up, eating takeaway food – falafel for the vegetarians, merguez for the others. It isn't exciting, but it's part of the job.
A little after midnight, Hristov does indeed show up. Pavel comes in with him, but the other bodyguards can't be found on camera. Hristov heads into the glitzy main lounge, sits with a pretty girl, and has a drink. Pavel stays across the room, standing at the bar and drinking high-end vodka. It looks more like entertainment than business . . . but when Hristov stands to leave, Vinnie sees him toss an envelope on the tray as a "tip."
Vinnie warns the others, who switch from camera to camera to track the waitress carrying the tray bearing the envelope. Eventually, Zhang spots her again, as she sets down the tray on another table to take an order. As smooth as silk, one of the men sitting there swaps the envelope for a real cash tip. Zhang recognizes the man as Inspecteur Général Michel Roland! While Hristov never met, made eye contact with, or even sat in the same room as Roland, it's clear that he passed the cop something tonight.
Once Roland has left as well, the team heads back to the Le Marais safe house. As it's quite late, the plan is to take Saturday, September 5 as a day off, and then plant surveillance at Bogdanov's early on Sunday morning, when everyone is well-rested. Not everybody is the resting type, however. Hamid spends much of the day getting more surveillance gear ready, while Zhang takes a shopping trip to pick up a few things he says the group will need.
In the wee hours of September 6, the crew heads out in Vinnie's car, with a couple of rucks of Hamid's gear in the trunk. Each Agent has a few gifts from Zhang: pantyhose to pull over the head, heavy rubber gloves, and a tall pair of angler's boots. Zhang explains that as silly as the outfits look, they should minimize the odds of leaving prints, fibers, and other clues . . . but he also brings a satchel full of industrial-strength cleansers as backup. As well, everybody has a loaded handgun, and Wen stows her SVD-S under the seat. Vinnie makes sure to pack his lockpicks.
At around 03:00, the squad does a slow drive-by of Bogdanov's to check out the situation. It's Wen's sharp eyes that spot potential trouble: She sees what she explains is the distinctive greenish glow of low-end night-vision gear in a third-storey window across the street from the restaurant. This worries everybody. Vinnie warns that it might be the gangsters' real "security," Zhang postulates that it might be the police nationale again, and Hamid refuses to sneak around with expensive surveillance gear until it's checked out.
Vinnie pulls in about a block away on the same side, at too oblique an angle to be seen easily by whoever is up in that window. At about 03:30, Vinnie, Wen, and Zhang exit the car and head back toward the suspicious building on foot, sticking to doorways and shadows. As everybody is wearing headsets, Anabel and Hamid are able to watch from the car and warn of oncoming traffic visible from their position, although it's predictably quiet at this hour.
At the door of the building with the worrisome watchers, Vinnie looks in the window and see a security panel. It would take legendary work with a screwdriver and a bypass to disable that in the grace period after the door opens. While Vinnie is willing to try, Wen and Zhang call in Hamid. A few minutes later, Hamid appears with a pouch of specialized gear. Vinnie pops the door's lock in record time; he and Hamid move in and unscrew the security panel like a pit crew changing a tire; and then Hamid bypasses the alarm with seconds to spare.
With that done, the revised plan is to leave Hamid at street level, as a lookout. Anabel will remain in the car, keeping watch up and down the street. The other three will head upstairs to see what's going on. After a whispered radio check, it's time to move.
Zhang takes point, with Wen covering his six. Vinnie pulls out his gun and hangs back, ready to charge in if there's trouble. As Zhang approaches the third-floor exit, he smells cheap cigarettes and hears somebody cough. He flattens himself against the floor, belly-crawls up to the door, and risks a glance. He sees a man sitting at a desk in the room beyond – and also the shadow of a second man, who must be backlit in a doorway just to the left of the exit.
Rather than risk even a whisper on the radio, Zhang ducks back and gestures for Wen. He mimes the situation to her, and an instant later, the two spring into action. Wen goes left, swinging around the doorframe with a two-footed kick to the face of the man lurking there. At the same instant, Zhang goes airborne and lands on the head of the man at the desk. Both victims go down, but Zhang's takes a few shots to subdue fully. Hearing the commotion, Vinnie dashes up to support.
As the three Agents move to check their knocked-out opponents for clues as to their identity, Wen hears the telltale sound of a gun safety coming off. She can't be sure, but long familiarity suggests that it's an AK-series weapon. She hisses a warning and pulls her gun. Zhang takes out his own pistol, while Vinnie points his at the lit doorway deeper into the building.
There's a second or two of tense silence . . . followed by hail of bullets ripping through the wall as somebody behind it shoots at the Agents with an automatic weapon! The bullets shred the thin wallboard like tinfoil, narrowly missing Vinnie. As soon as the fire has tracked back to the far side of the room, Zhang exits by diving back down the stairs like a Parkour pro, and Wen follows with a graceful leap reminiscent of a Wushu move. Vinnie joins them, although his landing is rather rough and painful.
Outside, Anabel's keen ears hear the gunfire almost immediately. She starts the car, does a U-turn, and screeches toward the building to rescue her allies. There, she's met by Hamid, who tosses his gear in the window and dives in after it.. Both of them shout to the others over the radio: Bug out and get to the car!
Vinnie needs no further encouragement. With his nose bleeding from his face-plant, he dashes out to the car. Anabel pops the door and slides into the passenger seat so that Vinnie can take the wheel. Wen and Zhang wait for a moment, hoping the shooter will pause to reload or otherwise offer them a tactical pause, but there's no such luck. After a few seconds of nonstop shooting, they conclude that their foe has a weapon with a large magazine or a belt, and run to join the others.
With all five in the car, Vinnie pulls out at high speed. Even as he roars away from the area, the Agents see a large man emerge onto the street behind them, firing a slung RPK with a drum magazine. Fortunately for the group, it's night, the gunner isn't very good, and the car is swerving wildly. Even so, Hamid and Anabel are almost hit by a bullet that passes through the trunk, back seat, and front seat before it comes to a stop in the dash.
Less than a minute later, Vinnie sees two large cars pull out behind him, clearly in pursuit. He drives skillfully, slowly increasing distance while denying the pursuers a clear shot. His options are limited, however – his enemies have a machine gun pointed out a side window. Vinnie knows that If he doesn't keep his rivals directly behind him, he risks giving them a deadly shot at the side of his car!
Wen has a solution in mind. She fetches and unfolds her SVD-S, and then assumes a peculiar braced shooting position between the front and back seats, her weapon resting on the back seat and pointed directly rearward. When she's ready, she yells for Vinnie to give her a few seconds of straight-ahead driving. Vinnie obliges, and Wen aims at the lead pursuer. Then she taps twice, once to clear the glass, and stars the windshield of the target vehicle.
The ensuing confusion gives Vinnie the opening he needs. As soon as the cars behind him slow and veer off evasively, he executes a wicked turn to the right and then squeals away, losing his gun-toting tail in the Paris night. He drives at random for a few minutes just to be sure, being careful not to head back toward the safe house . . . just in case. The coast seems to be clear.
However, now there's a new problem: The car has a missing back window and bullet holes in it, and was last seen fleeing a maniac with a machine gun by veering all over the place at 150 kph. Team consensus is that it's time to ditch the vehicle. While being on foot in Paris at 04:00 isn't ideal, it's probably a better bet than driving a car that every Russian gangster and every cop – honest and, worse, crooked – is going to be looking for.
Anabel spots a suitably hidden alleyway and Vinnie pulls over. The Agents remove all their gear from the vehicle and pack it into Hamid's kitbags. Wen makes sure to collect her brass. Then Wen and Vinnie sever fuel lines and generally get the car ready for transformation into a bonfire. When they're done, they warn everybody to step back and set the vehicle ablaze.
The squad walks a few blocks, looking for suitable transportation. They soon spot a promising-looking ride. Hamid and Vinnie handle the car alarm and lock, respectively, and then Anabel slithers in and gets the vehicle started with practiced ease. Less than a minute later, all five operators and their gear are pulling away in the stolen vehicle.
Vinnie once again drives in a roundabout fashion, slowly circling back toward Le Marais and doing his best not to draw attention. Once he reaches the safe house, at around 05:30, he drops off his associates and heads off to ditch the car. It's after dawn when he returns, but he assures the others that the car will be found well away from the hideout.
In light of recent events, nobody is quite ready to sleep, so there's a meeting on what to do next. Anabel feels that the police will use the shooting near Bogdanov's as a pretext to shake the place down, given that they were observing it already. Vinnie agrees. The consensus is that the restaurant is probably a cold lead – Hristov won't be heading back there to do business anytime soon! Thus, it's time for Plan B: Anabel feels that if Hamid could make a small device to plant in a cell phone, she could certainly get it into Kirill's pocket . . .
Time: September 4, 2009 (night).
Place: General area of Midas 69, Paris.
Last Event: Arranging surreptitious surveillance of Midas 69.
As the old saw goes, "And now, we wait." After setting up surveillance on the phones and security cameras of Midas 69, the Agents decide to spend the next few hours watching to see whether Hristov drops in, as he has on past Fridays. In fine stakeout tradition, they sit in the back of their parked van, headsets on and screens lit up, eating takeaway food – falafel for the vegetarians, merguez for the others. It isn't exciting, but it's part of the job.
A little after midnight, Hristov does indeed show up. Pavel comes in with him, but the other bodyguards can't be found on camera. Hristov heads into the glitzy main lounge, sits with a pretty girl, and has a drink. Pavel stays across the room, standing at the bar and drinking high-end vodka. It looks more like entertainment than business . . . but when Hristov stands to leave, Vinnie sees him toss an envelope on the tray as a "tip."
Vinnie warns the others, who switch from camera to camera to track the waitress carrying the tray bearing the envelope. Eventually, Zhang spots her again, as she sets down the tray on another table to take an order. As smooth as silk, one of the men sitting there swaps the envelope for a real cash tip. Zhang recognizes the man as Inspecteur Général Michel Roland! While Hristov never met, made eye contact with, or even sat in the same room as Roland, it's clear that he passed the cop something tonight.
Once Roland has left as well, the team heads back to the Le Marais safe house. As it's quite late, the plan is to take Saturday, September 5 as a day off, and then plant surveillance at Bogdanov's early on Sunday morning, when everyone is well-rested. Not everybody is the resting type, however. Hamid spends much of the day getting more surveillance gear ready, while Zhang takes a shopping trip to pick up a few things he says the group will need.
In the wee hours of September 6, the crew heads out in Vinnie's car, with a couple of rucks of Hamid's gear in the trunk. Each Agent has a few gifts from Zhang: pantyhose to pull over the head, heavy rubber gloves, and a tall pair of angler's boots. Zhang explains that as silly as the outfits look, they should minimize the odds of leaving prints, fibers, and other clues . . . but he also brings a satchel full of industrial-strength cleansers as backup. As well, everybody has a loaded handgun, and Wen stows her SVD-S under the seat. Vinnie makes sure to pack his lockpicks.
At around 03:00, the squad does a slow drive-by of Bogdanov's to check out the situation. It's Wen's sharp eyes that spot potential trouble: She sees what she explains is the distinctive greenish glow of low-end night-vision gear in a third-storey window across the street from the restaurant. This worries everybody. Vinnie warns that it might be the gangsters' real "security," Zhang postulates that it might be the police nationale again, and Hamid refuses to sneak around with expensive surveillance gear until it's checked out.
Vinnie pulls in about a block away on the same side, at too oblique an angle to be seen easily by whoever is up in that window. At about 03:30, Vinnie, Wen, and Zhang exit the car and head back toward the suspicious building on foot, sticking to doorways and shadows. As everybody is wearing headsets, Anabel and Hamid are able to watch from the car and warn of oncoming traffic visible from their position, although it's predictably quiet at this hour.
At the door of the building with the worrisome watchers, Vinnie looks in the window and see a security panel. It would take legendary work with a screwdriver and a bypass to disable that in the grace period after the door opens. While Vinnie is willing to try, Wen and Zhang call in Hamid. A few minutes later, Hamid appears with a pouch of specialized gear. Vinnie pops the door's lock in record time; he and Hamid move in and unscrew the security panel like a pit crew changing a tire; and then Hamid bypasses the alarm with seconds to spare.
With that done, the revised plan is to leave Hamid at street level, as a lookout. Anabel will remain in the car, keeping watch up and down the street. The other three will head upstairs to see what's going on. After a whispered radio check, it's time to move.
Zhang takes point, with Wen covering his six. Vinnie pulls out his gun and hangs back, ready to charge in if there's trouble. As Zhang approaches the third-floor exit, he smells cheap cigarettes and hears somebody cough. He flattens himself against the floor, belly-crawls up to the door, and risks a glance. He sees a man sitting at a desk in the room beyond – and also the shadow of a second man, who must be backlit in a doorway just to the left of the exit.
Rather than risk even a whisper on the radio, Zhang ducks back and gestures for Wen. He mimes the situation to her, and an instant later, the two spring into action. Wen goes left, swinging around the doorframe with a two-footed kick to the face of the man lurking there. At the same instant, Zhang goes airborne and lands on the head of the man at the desk. Both victims go down, but Zhang's takes a few shots to subdue fully. Hearing the commotion, Vinnie dashes up to support.
As the three Agents move to check their knocked-out opponents for clues as to their identity, Wen hears the telltale sound of a gun safety coming off. She can't be sure, but long familiarity suggests that it's an AK-series weapon. She hisses a warning and pulls her gun. Zhang takes out his own pistol, while Vinnie points his at the lit doorway deeper into the building.
There's a second or two of tense silence . . . followed by hail of bullets ripping through the wall as somebody behind it shoots at the Agents with an automatic weapon! The bullets shred the thin wallboard like tinfoil, narrowly missing Vinnie. As soon as the fire has tracked back to the far side of the room, Zhang exits by diving back down the stairs like a Parkour pro, and Wen follows with a graceful leap reminiscent of a Wushu move. Vinnie joins them, although his landing is rather rough and painful.
Outside, Anabel's keen ears hear the gunfire almost immediately. She starts the car, does a U-turn, and screeches toward the building to rescue her allies. There, she's met by Hamid, who tosses his gear in the window and dives in after it.. Both of them shout to the others over the radio: Bug out and get to the car!
Vinnie needs no further encouragement. With his nose bleeding from his face-plant, he dashes out to the car. Anabel pops the door and slides into the passenger seat so that Vinnie can take the wheel. Wen and Zhang wait for a moment, hoping the shooter will pause to reload or otherwise offer them a tactical pause, but there's no such luck. After a few seconds of nonstop shooting, they conclude that their foe has a weapon with a large magazine or a belt, and run to join the others.
With all five in the car, Vinnie pulls out at high speed. Even as he roars away from the area, the Agents see a large man emerge onto the street behind them, firing a slung RPK with a drum magazine. Fortunately for the group, it's night, the gunner isn't very good, and the car is swerving wildly. Even so, Hamid and Anabel are almost hit by a bullet that passes through the trunk, back seat, and front seat before it comes to a stop in the dash.
Less than a minute later, Vinnie sees two large cars pull out behind him, clearly in pursuit. He drives skillfully, slowly increasing distance while denying the pursuers a clear shot. His options are limited, however – his enemies have a machine gun pointed out a side window. Vinnie knows that If he doesn't keep his rivals directly behind him, he risks giving them a deadly shot at the side of his car!
Wen has a solution in mind. She fetches and unfolds her SVD-S, and then assumes a peculiar braced shooting position between the front and back seats, her weapon resting on the back seat and pointed directly rearward. When she's ready, she yells for Vinnie to give her a few seconds of straight-ahead driving. Vinnie obliges, and Wen aims at the lead pursuer. Then she taps twice, once to clear the glass, and stars the windshield of the target vehicle.
The ensuing confusion gives Vinnie the opening he needs. As soon as the cars behind him slow and veer off evasively, he executes a wicked turn to the right and then squeals away, losing his gun-toting tail in the Paris night. He drives at random for a few minutes just to be sure, being careful not to head back toward the safe house . . . just in case. The coast seems to be clear.
However, now there's a new problem: The car has a missing back window and bullet holes in it, and was last seen fleeing a maniac with a machine gun by veering all over the place at 150 kph. Team consensus is that it's time to ditch the vehicle. While being on foot in Paris at 04:00 isn't ideal, it's probably a better bet than driving a car that every Russian gangster and every cop – honest and, worse, crooked – is going to be looking for.
Anabel spots a suitably hidden alleyway and Vinnie pulls over. The Agents remove all their gear from the vehicle and pack it into Hamid's kitbags. Wen makes sure to collect her brass. Then Wen and Vinnie sever fuel lines and generally get the car ready for transformation into a bonfire. When they're done, they warn everybody to step back and set the vehicle ablaze.
The squad walks a few blocks, looking for suitable transportation. They soon spot a promising-looking ride. Hamid and Vinnie handle the car alarm and lock, respectively, and then Anabel slithers in and gets the vehicle started with practiced ease. Less than a minute later, all five operators and their gear are pulling away in the stolen vehicle.
Vinnie once again drives in a roundabout fashion, slowly circling back toward Le Marais and doing his best not to draw attention. Once he reaches the safe house, at around 05:30, he drops off his associates and heads off to ditch the car. It's after dawn when he returns, but he assures the others that the car will be found well away from the hideout.
In light of recent events, nobody is quite ready to sleep, so there's a meeting on what to do next. Anabel feels that the police will use the shooting near Bogdanov's as a pretext to shake the place down, given that they were observing it already. Vinnie agrees. The consensus is that the restaurant is probably a cold lead – Hristov won't be heading back there to do business anytime soon! Thus, it's time for Plan B: Anabel feels that if Hamid could make a small device to plant in a cell phone, she could certainly get it into Kirill's pocket . . .